spalled action brackets

[Clyde Hollinger]

Dave,

Sorry I can't answer your question.  I'm responding only because I tuned a
1925 Premier grand a couple times, and I felt the piano's life was over.
But pianos are very different, of course.  What is the condition of the
piano overall?  Is it owned by a client or by you?  Depending on what
gymnastics you have to go through to repair the problem with the action
brackets, you might have to question whether it's worth doing anything at
all.

Regards,
Clyde Hollinger, RPT

Dave Nereson wrote:

> Does anyone know what to do with (grand) action brackets that have
> "spalled", or cracked, fragmented, alligatored (not sure what word to
> use)?  They're in a 1927 Premier 4'8" grand, and look as though they
> were made in the early days of cast aluminum (?) or from "pot metal".
> The screws into the keyframe can't be tightened or fragments of the
> action brackets will just break off.  Elsewhere all over the brackets,
> there are little cracks and flakes of metal coming off -- they're
> disintegrating.  I think they've also expanded and thrown the action
> spread and other relationships out, so that it now is un-regulatable.
> The closest match I could find in any catalog were the Jacob Doll type,
> so I ordered some and they're close,  but no cigar -- they or the action
> rails would have to be re-milled to make everything fit and regulate
> properly.  I suppose new wooden or aluminum or Dural ones could be cut
> out of 1/2" maple or plate aluminum.    What have other techs done with
> these?
> dnereson@dim.com